Gulf of Mexico oil spill prompts Halliburton to take $300 million charge

As the settlement between BP and plaintiff attorneys in the oil spill litigation was filed in court Wednesday, Halliburton, the company that performed the cement job on the ill-fated Macondo well, took a $300 million charge on its earnings over the incident.

In its earnings release, Halliburton said "the $300 million Macondo-related charge represents the amount of probable losses related to the incident that can reasonably be estimated at this time, and may be adjusted in the future as new information and developments become known."

In the months leading up to the trial over the April 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig and 87-day oil spill, which was supposed to begin Feb. 27, BP had been unable to settle with Halliburton or Transocean, the rig owner.

As part of the settlement with plaintiff attorneys, BP assigned the rights to its claims against the two companies to the plaintiff attorneys. The move was a strategic one, giving new incentive to plaintiff attorneys to go after the companies, and making it easier for BP to move on from the incident and work with other major oil exploration companies on future endeavors.

The proposed settlement filed Wednesday in federal court in New Orleans contains multiple references to that assignment of rights, suggesting that Transocean and Halliburton could become a more significant target in the litigation than the companies originally expected.

The parties to the case are expected to send their proposals to U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier next week on what form the litigation should take place after the settlement between BP and the plaintiff attorneys, which settles a portion of the case.